A total of seven party members and volunteers have now quit, including four delegates of the national council - the party's governing body.

This morning Dr Cannold told the ABC it was "possible" other candidates may stand down.

Dr Cannold's resignation followed a controversy over the party's preferences in New South Wales and Western Australia.

The result is over-delegation, so I admit and I accept full responsibility for over-delegating functions to the Australian party...

It's not easy being a party leader at a distance with a nine-hour time delay.

WikiLeaks Party founder Julian Assange

It gave its first preferences to far-right wing candidates and parties in NSW, and in WA gave its preferences to the Nationals ahead of one of WikiLeaks' biggest supporters, Greens Senator Scott Ludlum.

The party blamed the NSW decision on "administrative errors" - an excuse disputed by Dr Cannold.

Mr Assange told ABC News 24 that Dr Cannold should have spoken to him about her concerns before speaking to the media.

"I went to sleep last night, during the night this whole kerfuffle broke out in Australia, I wasn't aware of it until this morning," he said.

"Leslie didn't speak to me to address any issues or concerns.

"From my perspective, if something is serious, you speak to the party leader about it before you speak to the press. Perhaps Leslie had her reasons."

Mr Assange said the party already has a candidate lined-up to replace Dr Cannold.

"We have seven candidates being filled in this election, we've lost one, many of the other parties have had to fire people or have them resign. The ALP and the Liberal Party included," he said.

"Of course, we're grateful to the work that Leslie has done to date, part of the problem here is the teething problems of a young party.

"I made a decision two months ago to spend a lot of my time on dealing with the Edward Snowden asylum situation and trying to save the life of a young man (Bradley Manning).

"Now, the result is over-delegation, so I admit and I accept full responsibility for over-delegating functions to the Australian party while I tried to take care of those situations.

"It's not easy obviously being a party leader at a distance with a nine-hour time delay."

Speaking later to ABC News 24, Dr Cannold agreed time difference was an issue the party has had to deal with.

But she said she thought there was also "some very serious problems" and that was why she felt she had to resign.

"Democracy is hard, nobody said it was easy," she said.

"It's very cute for people who have to get in front of the public and say, 'We are this thing', rather than, 'We aspire to be this thing, but we're not this thing at the moment', and that was the problem for me and for the number of people who resigned yesterday."

WikiLeaks website co-founder also quits

Another high-profile resignation was that of Daniel Mathews, who helped found the WikiLeaks website with Mr Assange.

In a lengthy statement, Dr Mathews cited the preferences fiasco as the immediate reason for his resignation, but added there were several issue that have been "simmering for some time".

"I know that dozens have put their heart and soul into this party because they believed it to be a party of principle, a party of integrity," he wrote on his blog.

"I know thousands rushed to join a party they thought they could believe in, and millions around the world have been inspired and have taken courage because of the actions of WikiLeaks and Julian Assange.

"I can only apologise to them for not having worked harder to defend the principles of the party; but I know that, had I stayed on, it would have been an increasingly losing battle.

"I know I may be criticised for jumping ship instead of weathering the storm.

"But the public, and especially the party's supporters, deserve to know what happened and what has happened behind the scenes in this fiasco within the party of transparency, and I have decided that this is the best course of action."

In a joint statement, six of those who quit, including Dr Mathews and fellow national council members Sam Castro, Kaz Cochrane and Luke Pearson, along with volunteers Sean Bedlam and David Haidon, also raised concerns about the party's transparency and accountability.

"Where a national council member begins openly subverting the party's own processes, and asking others to join in a secret, alternative power centre that subverts the properly constituted one, this is not an acceptable mode of operation for any organisation but even more so for an organisation explicitly committed to democracy, transparency and accountability," the statement read.